Novel study introduction
 Not
so novel
 Ransom Riggs
 Breakdown – group activity
 Special note on setting
A
long prose narrative that usually
describes fictional characters and events
in the form of a sequential story
 Historical roots in the fields
of medieval and
early modern romance and in the
tradition of the novella
 Construction
of the narrative
 Plot
 Relation
to reality
 Characterization
 Use of language
Winslow Homer,
The New Novel (1877)
 American
writer and filmmaker
 Wrote The Sherlock Holmes Handbook
 Publisher Quirk Books suggested that he
put together a narrative based on the
photos he’d collected
 Made
The New York Times Best Seller List
 Another book, Talking Pictures, will follow
 Talking Pictures
 Ransom
Riggs grew up in suburban Florida
 Part of his upbringing is reflected in Jacob’s life
 Grew up writing stories and making videos
 Mainly, Riggs
• Writes books
• Makes movies
• Word-blogs and video-blogs
Do you hear Jacob’s
tone in Riggs’ narration
of this video?
 Riggs
– “…Geographically, I loved the look of
an island off Scotland called St. Kilda, which is
all craggy peaks and steep valleys. Really
beautiful, though people haven’t lived there in
decades.”
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172692.asp
 Non-fiction?
 Fiction?
 Science
fiction?
 Fantasy?
 Autobiographical?
You guessed it…FANTASY
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting
Character
Plot
Visual
Genre
 “It
was dramatic and beautiful, unlike any
place I’d seen. I felt a little thrill of
adventure as we chugged into the bay, as
if I were sighting land where maps had
noted only a sweep of undistinguished
blue.” (67)
 Fictional
island
 Inspired by Riggs’ interest in travel
 The
island setting is significant
 Islands possess a certain mystique
• Isolation lends itself to peculiarities that
mainland society is less likely to have
 Lord
of the Flies
 Robinson Crusoe
 Life of Pi (stranded)
 The Swiss Family Robinson
Island existence is often the
inspiration for films and TV
series